Ebenezer Denny entered military service as a "message runner" at age 13 to supplement his family's income. During the Revolutionary War, he joined the crew of a privateer ship that operated in the Caribbean, and returned to Carlisle with "prize money" taken from British ships. He was given a commission in the Pennsylvania Line in 1780, and served in the First American Regiment in campaigns against Indigenous nations in the Northwest. In Denny's account of Harmar's Defeat he observed that many of his fellow soldiers were "without guns." In 1785, he compiled a glossary of the Delaware and Shawnee languages while at Fort Pitt. Denny became a charter member of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1791. He resigned his commission in 1795 and settled near Fort Pitt, where he invested in a Pittsburgh glass manufacturing company in 1801. In 1803 Denny was elected treasurer of Allegheny County, and in 1804 he became the local director of the Bank of Pennsylvania. He was appointed the first mayor of Pittsburgh in 1816 after the city received its charter.
Osborne, John, and James Gerencser. "Ebenezer Denny." Last modified August 5, 2003.
Denny, Ebenezer and Josiah Harmar. Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny. Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1859.
Institution of the Society of the Cincinatti. Philadelphia, PA: C. Sherman, Son & Co., 1863.